In a previous post I wrote about my Darwin 200 voyage on the West coast of Scotland in 2021 well, this was what it was leading up to, the big one, circumnavigating the globe. I would have loved to have done the entire 2 year voyage but it simply wasn’t practically, or financially possible. So I settled for four connected legs, Tahiti-Rarotonga-Tonga-Fiji-New Zealand.
I spent a week in Tahiti exploring before I joined ship on Sunday 11th Aug in Papeete. Setting sail the next day for Huahine in the Society Islands, then heading to the coral lagoon between the islands of Taha’a and Raiatea. The shallow lagoon was a great place for snorkelling. We spent a fair bit of time here before setting off to Bora Bora, arriving at night. We spent a couple of days on Bora Bora and took the opportunity to explore by car and do a bit of snorkeling. Luya and Gerda spotted a manta ray but the time I got there it had gone. We weighed anchor at 16:30 and set sail for the Cook islands. We were hoping to visit Aitutaki but customs changed their mind and we had to change course towards Rarotonga.
On Tuesday we were informed that could not enter the harbour in Rarotonga due to the swell so we sailed around to the west of the island and found an anchorage, once settled we had a bit of a party and dancing late into the night. We were at anchor for a couple of days but entertained ourselves with engine room tours, rope craft sessions and a shell hunt around the ship, but the highlight was being visited by humpback whales quite close to the ship.
On Thursday we weighed anchor and headed around the island to Avarua where the skipper expertly maneuvered the ship into the small harbour, later being ‘told off’ for not waiting for the pilot which we clearly didn’t need but nevertheless had to pay the fee. Whilst waiting for customs clearance many locals came to see the ‘pirate’ ship, apparently we were the talk of the island. I hired a scooter to tour the island stayed at lovely wee shack, Shiloh in a beautiful location on the South of the island.
As we were spending a few days on the island we all arranged to go to a cultural evening at the Highland Paradise Hotel. We were picked up by mini bus from around the island but due to miscommunication I almost missed the bus. When we arrived at the hotel the bus driver hung a pair of leaves around my neck and informed me that I was now the rangatira, or tribal chief of our waka (minibus). My ceremonial duties were explained to me but nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. We all walked in ceremony to the ahu, or sacred mound where the two rangatira made offerings to the priest and I thought that was it, job done. But no, after we had watched to dancing and drumming and our host regaled us with stories of Maori culture, the two ragatira had to get up on stage and dance with the dancers. If that wasn’t enough it turned out we were in competition, which I won and had to dance with the dancers on my own. I knew I was going to make a fool of myself but I thought ‘what the hell’ then turned to see alll my crewmates filming the event with their phones.
after a few days on the island we got a message on Sunday that we had to get our documents back on the ship for immigration clearance. The ship was at anchored off Arorangi pier on the West of the island so we met Jan-Willem who collected our passports. By Monday plans had changed again and we were asked to be onboard by 15:45 to clear immigration. We grouped together on the beach waiting for the tender to take us back to the ship and said our farewells to those who were finishing their part of the voyage here. Back onboard with our next destination, Tonga on our minds.